166 



THE MOLLUSK FISHERIES 



i Licenses. 2 Statistics of the number of men engaged were unobtainable. 



I 



Causes of the Decline. The same cause which has been stated in 

 the general report has contributed to the decline of the clam supply, 

 i.e., the increasing demand which has led to overfishing. Thus the decline 

 can be directly attributed to the exploiting of natural clam resources 

 by man, although it must be admitted that natural Agencies, such as 

 geographical changes, destroy the clam flats of certain localities and 

 build up others. 



This decline has become possible through the indifference of the towns 

 to the welfare of their clam fishery, and by not restricting, through 

 town laws, the extermination of the clams in time to allow nature to 

 replenish the flats. Some towns, such as Ipswich, have regulated this 

 matter by placing closed seasons on portions of the flats, which has 

 been the partial means of preserving their natural supply. Thus the 

 town laws have proved inadequate, as most towns have no laws at all, 

 or have such unwise ones that they often defeat their own object. 



It is again necessary to emphasize the need of reform in the clam 

 industry. This Commonwealth once possessed an extensive supply of 

 clams, and still possesses part of its former abundance; but the present 

 supply is diminishing at such a rate that it will not be a quarter of a 

 century before the natural clam fishery will be commercially extinct. 

 On the south shore clams are now commercially extinct, and it is only 

 a question of time, if the present methods are allowed to remain, before 

 the north shore clams will also disappear. The experiments of the 

 Massachusetts department of fisheries and game and the work of men 

 who have planted this shellfish all show that thousands of dollars can 

 be brought into the State by utilizing the waste clam areas, and that 



